Allexis Telia Ferrell is a 27-year-old resident from Canton, Ohio, who was rumoured to have been arrested for killing and eating a cat.
The incident caused massive outrage on social media.
However, it has also led to an unusual online trend involving Donald Trump memes.
The incident also led the right-wing social media to go into overdrive, linking it to unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
The viral claims have been taken up by Elon Musk, who used it in his meme, and by Republican influencers and even former President Donald Trump’s running-mate JD Vance.
However, are Haitian migrants really eating pets?
Springfield police told the media house Springfield News-Sun that they are not investigating any such reports.
A city spokesperson stated that there are no substantiated reports of pets being harmed or abused by individuals from the migrant communities.
Critics have also labelled such claims as overtly racist.
However, the claims and counterclaims evolve from a deeper malaise of the recent influx of migrants into Springfield.
According to reports, the city saw an influx of more than 20,000 Haitian immigrants in the last several years.
The rumor can be traced to an August meeting of the Springfield City Commission where a 28-year-old man made unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants were killing ducks in their neighborhood and then taking them home to eat.
There were posts in a Springfield Facebook group which claimed that a friend’s cat went missing and was later seen strung up and killed for dinner in a Haitian migrant’s yard.
Allexis Telia Ferrell; Ohio Woman Arrested for Allegedly Killing and Consuming a Cat
Coming to the latest video which went viral, it talked about a woman who was arrested for allegedly eating a cat last month.
The media house Fox 12 reported that 27-year-old Allexis Telia Ferrell was indicted after an apparent bout of rampage on August 16 in which she stomped on the cat’s head, killing it, and then ate it in front of her neighbours.
However, the records do not indicate the woman is either Haitian or a migrant.
Also, investigations revealed that the woman was arrested in Canton, which is a three-hour drive from Springfield.
Many social media influencers and commentators have labelled the claims of Haitian immigrants eating pets as racist and xenophobic responses to Springfield’s shifting demographics.
Erik Crew, an attorney for the Haitian Bridge Alliance, told the media house Hill,
‘This is the same old anti-black playbook that we’ve seen for hundreds of years in Ohio being rolled out to divide and create hate, especially around election times. White supremacist and antidemocratic movements have always used the claim that so-called black savages are coming to destroy, especially when political power is up for grabs. This is no different.’
